News

Strong effort in the time trial from Yates on stage 13 of the Tour de France

Fri 15 Jul 2016

Briton Adam Yates produced a fantastic ride for ORICA-BikeExchange in the individual time trial on stage 13 of the Tour de France today, moving into third place on the general classification but retaining the lead of the best young rider category.

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) won the stage with a fast time of 50minutes 15seconds for the tough 37.5kilometres course with Christopher Froome (Team-Sky) in second place.

Yates finished three minutes down on the stage winner after brilliantly overcoming the challenging course in what is not the ORICA-BikeExchange rider’s favourite pursuit.

Extending his lead in the best young rider classification and moving into third place overall behind race leader Froome and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Yates is 58seconds behind the Trek rider going into tomorrow's stage 14.

“The time trial is not my speciality and I think out of everyone here I’m probably one of the weakest,” said Yates at the finish. “I gave it my absolute maximum out there and I think I did an ok job to finish with the time I got, I did my best so that’s all I can do.”

“This is all part of a great experience because I haven’t been in this position before so we keep approaching the race day by day and I’m learning something new everyday.

“Myself and the team will keep on trying our best for the rest of the race and now we all need to recover before tomorrow’s stage.”

“Adam (Yates) would probably admit that he rode the best time trial of his life out there today,” said White. “He produced a strong performance on what was a difficult course - a seven kilometre climb at the start then a windy plateau before the drag up to the finish.”

“This is new territory now for Adam, third overall going into the final week of a grand tour and so far so good, he should be very proud of the way he has ridden so far.

“We will be concentrating on looking after Adam over the next couple of stages, keeping in him in good positions and trying to lay low and recover.”

How it happened:

An early and windy start to the first time trial of this year’s Tour de France saw the first riders take to the start ramp at 10:00am European time.

Swiss strong man Michael Albasini posted the best early time for ORICA-BikeExchange with 55minutes 32seconds for the challenging 37.5kilometre course.

The best initial time to beat was 51minutes 46seconds set by the early occupant of the hot seat, Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) with Rohan Dennis (BMC) ten seconds slower in provisional second place.

2013 Australian time trial champion Luke Durbridge rode his way into the provisional top ten with a time of 53minutes 16seconds and around seventy riders still to start.

Dumoulin stormed into the top spot with a time of 50minutes 15seconds, a full minute and a half faster than Oliveira.

The staggered start times saw all of the top ten riders on general classification out on the course together with Yates second to last down the start ramp.

Richie Porte (BMC) was the first of the favourites over the line in 53 minutes 23seconds followed by Dan Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) who finished over four minutes down on Dumoulin’s time.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) managed to go a couple of seconds quicker than Van Garderen but still nowhere near Dumoulin 50minutes 15seconds.

Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) jumped straight into virtual 5th place on the stage finishing in 52minutes nine seconds with Yates producing a fantastic ride to finish with a time of 53minutes 23seconds.

Dumoulin won the stage with race leader Froome in second place, one minute and three seconds slower.

Tomorrow’s stage 14 covers 208.5 kilometres from Montelimar to Villars-les-Dombes. The route is largely flat includes three short category four climbs before shaping up to what should be a sprint finish. This is the last stage before Paris with an opportunity for what sprinters remain in the race to contest stage win.